I would love to start this post by telling you that I have mastered personal organization and productivity. Yes, I’ve read books. I’ve read blogs. I’ve attended workshops. But do I have it all figured out? No. Not even close.
I do think there is value in sharing some of the systems that work for me – that way you can try them out if you want. I’m actually more interested in what you do to stay organized when it comes to tasks, emails, tweets, and everything else on your plate. Please share in the comments!
How I Stay Organized
Schedule:
- Google Calendar
- I have one for work, one for personal events, and one for birthdays. On the birthday calendar, I set each event to last all day (so it shows up at the top) and to recur annually. For really important birthdays, you can also set an email or text reminder one week in advance.
- Appointments spreadsheet
- I use this to track medical and car appointments. I record “last appointment” and “next due” along with key contact information for each provider.
Emails:
- Inbox
- I am one of those people that uses my email as a to-do list. I do not ascribe to the “inbox to zero” philosophy if it means filing things I haven’t finished or responded to just so they are out of my inbox. When I complete an action, I archive the email.
- Enable “superstars” feature in gmail
- Allows you to star emails with various symbols. I star an email when I need to respond to a person (rather than handle a task or read a newsletter); I “superstar” with an exclamation mark when I feel like I’m overdue on my reply.
- Labels
- I make sure the labels match the folder names on my computer and the categories in my Google Bookmarks (which I use so that I can access my bookmarks from any computer). I name frequent or important labels with numbers first (ex: 1 – Life After College).
Capturing ideas, notes, tasks:
- Small Moleskin notebook
- For personal use – capturing to-do lists on weekends, shopping lists, blog ideas, contact info, other notes when I’m on the go.
- Work notebook – science lab style.
- I primarily use this for taking meeting notes at work inside the notebook (duh), mostly so that I’m not distracted by trying to take notes on my laptop.
- At the start of every week, I place a big post-it on the cover. I draw a line down the middle. On the left I list key work priorities, on the right I list personal tasks. When the week is over or I finish everything, I stick the post-it inside the notebook and label it with the date.
- Todoist.com
- A great online tool that allows you to group tasks by projects. I use this when I get overwhelmingly busy or am working on a complex project. Otherwise I find that a simple pen, paper and post-it works better for me.
- iPhone
- When I’m on the go, I email myself reminders and websites to check out. I used to use Jott for recording voice memos that were transcribed as emails, but I haven’t since they started charging (even though it is a small fee and probably worth it).
Other Online “Collection” Buckets:
- Keepers File
- From my recent post: I have a Google Doc that houses “keeper” emails that make me smile. Instead of archiving them in email, I copy and paste into a Google Doc (with the name of sender and date) so they are all in one place.
- Things to read later:
- For ebooks or other lengthy articles, I tag them in Delicious as “read_later“
- Networking Spreadsheet
- This might sound mechanical, but I keep a list of people that I’ve scheduled calls with or that I know I want to reach out to. If someone reaches out to me, I also add them to the list. It helps me remember how I connected with someone, when we last spoke, and their contact information. I divide the spreadsheet into two parts: “not yet spoken with” and “archive.”
Other Offline Collection Buckets:
- A folder called “To File”
- Where I stick bills and papers when I’m too lazy to file them in my filebox. When the “to file” folder gets big (about an inch thick), I file everything at the same time (usually while watching The Hills or something equally mind-numbing).
- Post-it notes by my bed and front door
- In case I really need to remember something the next day, I keep post-it notes handy at all times! Major reminders go on my bedroom door or my front door, depending on what I have to remember.
- Key Plate
- The most obvious: a plate by my front door to hold my keys. Which is whey are never lost (until I forget to take them with me and lock myself out).
Have I scared you yet?? I know this seems like a lot to keep track of. But when I try to consolidate I lose things, so I’m generally okay with this for now. That said, I would love to learn more tips and tricks from you (nothing like a good lifehack to spruce up the day) – please share yours in the comments!
P.S. I think the phrase “fill-in-the-blank-hack” will go down as one of the most over-used, over-rated words of the year. And yes, I used it anyway.
No related posts.
Great tips at the right moment. I had a little reflective session with myself last night on how I need to get my life in order. This definitely helps!
Thanks Katya! I know you have some tips up your sleeve…share ‘em when you get a chance
thanks for sharing how yr system looks – awesome!
so nice to hear someone else out there has a “To File” – in fact the label progression on my folder went from “to Office” -> “to Home” -> “toSomewhere” -> “Conduit”
if you can get your hands on a clear plastic folder with two sides closed (like a pocket) – you’ll be able to stick the “small things” like biz cards, receipts, scraps of paper and even keep the folder in yr backpack without fear of losing anything – it works great!
Thanks Chinarut! The label progression on your “to file” folder made me laugh – conduit is a great name for it. I use the clear, durable folders too – especially for that folder, since it gets a lot of wear and tear.
Thanks for sharing these great tips with us! Some of them I already use, but some (like todolist.com) I’ve never even heard of and they sound really interesting to me. I’m a HUGE fan of being organized so I’m always happen to learn new tips. I can’t think of any off the top of my head right now but if any come to mind I’ll come back and let you know.
GREAT advice Jenny – I ran and set up the superstar gadget immediately after reading this. When it comes to organization, I’m pretty old fashioned, I have countless numbers of hand-written to-do lists (which I compile almost daily) – it’s somewhat of a sick obsession, not gonna’ lie.
P.S. What is it about moleskin notebooks that just BREEDS creativity and coolness? There is something about having a bad ass notebook with you that soothes the soul. Yes, I am a huge nerd.
Thanks so much Matt! You rock. Happy to have helped you discover superstars! They make a huge difference. I love that you are obsessed with hand-written to-do lists too – do you watch So You Think You Can Dance, by any chance? One of the guys, Kopono, made these great lists every day.
There’s also this great book: To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us. It’s a compilation of a bunch of people’s various lists – definitely worth checking out
Finally, Moleskin notebooks really do breed creativity and coolness!! I love snapping that elastic band around the pages when I’m done writing, and swishing the little placeholder around. Forget cell phones; how did we ever make it through life without these things?!
Great Post Jenny. First time reading the blog but won’t be the last.
I religiously use Google Docs for everything (aside from Excel files that I need macros). When I go back and forth between computers, it´s the best for productivity.
In all Seinfield ‘European Carry-All’ Style, I have my own slingpack I carry with me 99% of the time (one of those Nike drawstring packs). In it I always have.
1) Digital Camera
Book (never know when you need to pass the time)
2) Digital Recorder
3) Moleskin notebook
4) Batteries
5) Pen, pencil, eraser
6) Map (if I am in another city)
7) Jumpdrive
9) Granola Bar (never know when you won´t be able to eat)
10) Business Cards
Always keeps me sane, and ready for whatever life will throw at me!
Hi Ryan – nice to meet you! Thanks for stopping by, and I’m glad you liked the post. I was actually just reading (and really appreciating) your comments at Carlos’ blog.
So by slingpack, you mean Murse, right? Juuuust kidding – giving you a hard time ;D.
The list you provided made me smile – you really hit on every single essential item, right down to the map, jumpdrive and granola bar! Books, the Moleskine, pen, recording devices – all essential items too.
AND – I love that you are a fellow Google-docs-for-everything user! Would love to swap templates/use-cases some time.
Hi Jenny,
This is great stuff. I’m such an old fashioned person when it comes to organization. There’s just something great about writing lists down and crossing them out once done. Although I do try to mix it up with online and offline organizational tools since I’m mostly on the computer anyway.
I’ll try some of the things you wrote here, especially the doctor appointments and such. I know I have to start thinking about my health and making sure I get the yearly/bi-yearly checkups done.
Another great resource on lists which might be useful for you and your readers can be found here.
Great idea on tagging lengthy articles in Delicious with “read_later”. I totally werk the “superstars” feature in gmail!
Hi Jenny,
Have you used Remember The Milk at all? You might find it handy to use in conjunction with your iphone.
Evernote might also be handy for capturing ideas and information.
Ultimately, everyone will have their own way of doing things and its a bit of a hassle switching back and forth between them. Always worth a look though eh?
I like the idea of your networking spreadsheet and your keepers-file, definitely one for me to get together!
Hey J_B!
It was great talking with you!
Wonderful post as usual
For as digital as we are, I still always carry around a notebook as well. I use it for the “important” things, similar to most. When I was in business plan mode, the notebook was my saving grace. I feel like when you are keeping track of goals, ideas and things of that nature, writing them down on paper creates a sense of accountability that is easily erased in word. What do you think? I really like the Levenger Circa notebooks. You can rearrange pages as needed without damage and still keeps everything nice and organized. Also, it allows you to use different types of filler paper and reuse the notebook cover when you want start a new book.
Great post. Have you ever tried using Evernote or Rememberthemilk.com?
LOVE all the ideas and will implement some of them.
One more questions: do you keep receipts and how do you organize them?
Thanks for a great blog. It’s the first one I follow and I am never disappointed. I will share it with my clients.
Be well -Nicole
i’ve read a few posts from Jenny raving about mint.com and guessing she’s gone digital
i’ve been using the service for less than a month and just can’t believe how much it eliminates the manual entry of expenses from back in the day (in MS Money) and still manages to keep tabs on budgeted category expenses!
now for the record, I try to keep receipts for biz-related expenses in a monthly tickler.
love to hear what others do too!
changing gears…thx for the ref todoist ref! i like the FIrefox Sidebar. I still use tadalist.com because it puts the idea of *shared* collaborative lists out there and works great on the iPhone. my hypothesis is it’s useful for teams where the agenda for the next “meeting” is a moving target. that said, eager to see how google tasks evolves
LOVE your blog! Wanted to offer up another thought that might help – Microsoft OneNote if you’re a PC lover and EverNote or Together if you’re a Mac user. This is about the only thing (other than really annoyingly complicated statistical software, at least that I know of) that Apple is pretty behind in developing (even though it was supposedly inspired by Apple). Basically this allows you take notes and organize things digitally the way you’d work by hand – sort of a combination of digital post-its (which you can download, aka “Stickies” for Macs) and Microsoft Word with your favorite Moleskin, legal pad, and 3 ring binder (complete with dividers, labels, pockets, and post-it flags). I’ve also used TaDaList and Remember the Milk and like both a decent amount though using iCal or Google Calendar and those to do lists all linked up together can be really awesome.
Anyways, I’m glad to see that someone thinks about some of the networking stuff and can be as obsessively organized as I am (or try to be).
)
P.S. That last thing was supposed to be a big, happy smiley face… not a weird surprised face!
Great post Jenny. I always enjoy hearing about the systems people use to manage their lives. I especially like the simplicity of the system you use. Not matter how many innovative productivity tools are invented, nothing will ever touch the ultimate life tool: the post-it note.
I saw it mentioned above, but you may want to take a look at Evernote. It’s clipping feature works very effectively for things like your method of saving your emails (not to mention all of the other uses).
I recently discovered your blog and have already become a repeat customer. Keep up the good work!
Great organization tips! Thanks for sharing these. I’ve never heard of Moleskin so that was a good find, for me. I always ‘think’ I’m pretty organized but then compare myself to others and know I am far from it!
[...] How I Stay Organized (or How I Would Like To) October 2, 2009 Posted by Pie in Uncategorized. trackback Inspired by this post. [...]
I have a routine which starts with emails/google reader/videos. At the weekend I watch Ted/GoogleVideo as the latter e-pumps the latest to me. Sometimes I get lucky, I had seen Erica Fox (@googleUni) intro Ngahi from NZ not via gmail and had skipped it – today with a bit more time I wasable to relaxinto a great talk. Gogoogle.
“Never flinch at failure: If you’re not making some mistakes, you’re not doing anything – not trying to make things happen.
“Never flinch at failure: If you’re not making some mistakes, you’re not doing anything – not trying to make things happen.
It seems that you have so many things to help you organize that you would spend all your time organizing your organization and have no time left for anything else. Who is running your life, you or technology and secondly, does the technology add to your life or do you have to change what you are doing so you can then adopt the technology?
Matthew – thanks for stopping by. I think it really just comes down to
personal preference, and I don't use all of these things every day, so it
doesn't feel like the technology is running my life. I feel more “overrun”
by email than anything else – I WISH I had a system for processing it
better! I've read GTD and everything but still struggle to make it work for
me. To answer your second question, I try to adapt the organizational
solutions to my life (not the other way around). I find it much easier that
way. Have a great week!
[...] Todoist.com – this is a new find from Life After College, mainly because I was looking for something that I can use both at home and at work (they block a [...]
Are you a real person? If so, are you really just one person? You have the BEST templates on Google Docs. I can now organize my entire life. Thank you!
Art – your comment cracked me up…yes I am a real person
And there's just one of me, although sometimes I wish I could multiply myself (or freeze time!). So glad you found the templates helpful – I'm a big fan of organization AND Google Docs — sounds like you are too. Have a great week!